You’ll be hard pressed to find a small business that is not operating on a deficit. In fact, according to the stats provided by the National Small Business Association 42% of small business owners have credit card debt. That’s unfortunate, especially in such a well developed country like the United States. But, the reality is that in our wobbly economy many small business owners do not make enough money to live comfortably and maintain all of their business expenses.

What is a small business owner to do if he or she needs extra cash to sustain his or her lifestyle? Borrow. The most common form of borrowing comes in the form of plastic rectangles: you know the kind I mean, credit cards. Although credit cards can be a good way to help many business owners stay afloat from time to time they also come with pit falls.

Unlike with personal credit cards, business credit cards do not fall under the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. What exactly does that mean? It means, that issuers can change interest rates (by that I mean raise interest rates) on business credit cards anytime they please. With interest rates climbing higher then business owners anticipated they will be digging themselves deeper in debt.

If you are a business owner looking for an increase in cash flow, think twice before you take on a business credit card. Interest rates can climb without your knowledge and you can end up paying off outrageous balances that will hinder your economic progress and cause you to fall further in debt.

Many consumers strongly believe that good customer service is non-existent. In fact, American small businesses lose between 1-3% of their yearly business due to poor customer service. That’s ridiculous! 1-3% may seem like a low rate but when that percentage is transferred into dollars its a significant piece of the profits.

Poor customer service is the result of poor working conditions, unhappy employees and a lack of proper management skills. Many managers do not know how to manage different personality types. These personality types range all the way from the lazy to the fib tellers. Thankfully there is help! Many small business owners are paying for their general managers to attend weekend long conferences that teach them how to manage all personality types pertaining to both customers and employees. Some owners are even taking it a step further and are hiring a team of professionals who specialize in company management to train their staff in house for a week.

Now, of course these seminars and company management firms are not cheap, but the few thousand dollar investment is worth it because it will help create a solid business reputation for business owners and their establishments.

Need to train your employees but do not have the resources to do it? Fill out the contact information to the left of the screen and within forty-eight hours you will.

Small business owners who have exhausted their capital borrowing abilities are seeking a new way of funding. Well, this particular form of borrowing and lending is not exactly new, but it is new in the sense of funds being used for business capital. What avenue of lending are we discussing? Pawning.

Many small business owners have started taking their collectables, expensive jewelry, family heirlooms and all other merchandise worth big bucks to pawn shops in exchange for the collateral they need. For some business owners this type of borrowing has been extremely beneficial and has helped them through their financial hurdles. However, pawning as a form of business lending is not a solid source. Pawn shops lend money based on the amount of profit they can make off of the item being pawned and place a strict time restraint on the loan payoff. Usually with most pawn brokers loan time frames range from 1-3 months. With such a short time constriction business owners are piling added stress on themselves to pay the money back. What business owner needs added stress? None that I know.

If you are a small business owner who could use extra cash and need a loan with no stress and minimal effort involved try a business cash advance based on your company’s credit card sales or an invoice factoring loan based on your company’s monthly invoices.

Some say that big banks are lending generously to small business owners and others say that they are lending at startlingly low numbers. Well, truth be told this will be a debate that will continue for quite awhile to come. Which side of the debate are you on? Do you believe banks are lending to small businesses or not?

According to the FDIC the top banks in the nation hold a whopping 40% of America’s domestic reserve and are responsible for a measly 16% of all small business loans. Wow. No matter how you cut it those numbers just do not even out. Who are these banks? Well, they are: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wellsfargo and Goldman and Sachs.

Now, let’s ask the question again…..are you on the side of the banks or the side of the hardworking small business owners?

In today’s technologically driven world it is imperative for small business owners to take to the internet just as the big corporations do. One of the most popular avenues is twitter. Several big name companies use twitter to post announcements about their establishments and take customer feedback.

However, perhaps the smartest use of twitter comes from a few small businesses that use twitter as not only a source for customer service but for shipment tracking. A handful of small businesses have morphed their twitter accounts into their very own package tracking systems. Customers tweet their full names and their ordered product type and employees tweet back the shipping stats of their packages.

It is because of customer service like this and the great value small business owners place on their customers that make people continue to support local businesses.

What can twitter do for your small business?

One of the most common reasons why small businesses fail is because of poor money management. A great chunk of small business owners fail to keep track of what their daily gross is versus their daily expenses. To add to this horrible accounting flaw, owners often fail to separate their personal finances from their business finances; meaning that owners take funds from their business accounts for personal reasons rather then allocating a specific salary for themselves. What disorganization!

The foundation to running a successful business is accounting and organization. The simplest way to start monitoring spending versus profit is to create a daily cap report. In this report their should be a list of all operational expenses. The daily cost of each expenses should be listed next to the cost description. Below the total cost per day of operation should be the daily gross and below that should be the net profit. By running this report daily owners can clearly see where money is being spent, where cost can be slimmed down and how much profit they took in within the week, month, even year.

According to CBS, small business owners around the United States experienced a 28% boost in this year’s after Thanksgiving sales; thanks in part to the major campaigning for Small Business Saturday. This jump in sales is fantastic news, it means that with the biggest shopping month of the year upon us small businesses can expect a higher sales volume then last year. Yay!

However, it is important to remember that small business owners must compete with large corporations and in order to do so they must provide consumers with the same wide selection of goods. These goods must compile an inventory stock sustainable to last throughout the month of December as well as the first week of January, because this period of time is when sales and foot-traffic are at a high. Along with a large inventory stock pile merchants must also provide consumers with different avenues of savings (as do large scale corps.). The most popular type of sale is one in which all of the less popular items are offered at discounts with a few great finds thrown in. Perhaps small business owners could show their appreciation for consumers by offering more appealing sales.

With the shopping season upon us business owners must insure that they have a healthy inventory stock as well as a healthy cash flow. If additional funds are needed to help sustain through the holidays then small business owners should look into alternative avenues of borrowing. Extra cash could help maintain operations after the holiday shopping rush when sales seem to take a bit of a drop.

Small business owners and economists predict that this holiday shopping season will be filled with more spending then the earlier semi disappointing years. Which means, it is in the small business owner’s best interest to invest what marketing dollars they can to advertise their establishments. Obviously, the marketing budget of a small boutique cannot compare with that of a multimillion dollar company, but there are inexpensive ways to get people to notice small establishments.

Perhaps the most efficient is a newspaper ad. A Sunday ad in your area’s most popular paper can run at a minimal cost and will allow you to reach people who read their newspapers at home, on their computers and their smartphones. If you are looking to advertise on a larger scale a billboard in a high traffic area is always a great way to get noticed. If that’s the route your thinking of taking, call us, we’ll get you the funds you need to have your business noticed.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration the second most common reason why new business owners fail is because of a lack of cash flow. Now that’s a fair fact most of us can agree with. Lack of funds is a struggle even the biggest of chains have to face. In fact, the  giant ice cream chain Dip and Dots just filed for bankruptcy and is currently looking for another bank loan. Bummer.

A dry cash well is never fun. Which is why it is smart for small business owners not to invest until they have enough in savings to sustain their businesses for the first few months. For owners who are already established and may or may not be doing fine, its a good idea to get a low rate cash advance and stash the money away in savings. In an unsure economy it is wise to have a safety net.

It seems as though the latest culinary craze is food trucks. No not the traditionally creepy trucks with substandard food items like: day old bagels and shriveled up hot dogs. I’m talking about food trucks that serve up gourmet food at ridiculously fair prices. This latest trend is a great way for restaurant owners looking to expand to do so. A specialty truck can cost around $20,000, not to mention food,supplies, the cost of parking and storage and of course payroll for the employees running the truck. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget fuel.

However, in spite of all these costs a truck is still significantly cheaper then renting and operating a commercial space. Basically, the smaller the restaurant, the lower the cost of operation. For restauranteurs looking to expand, before you buy or lease a commercial property to mold into your dream eatery, way out all of your options before you do so. At the peak of our economy nearly half of all new restaurants failed: what does that tell you about your chances of success in our present economy?